Sony confirms a ‘next-generation’ PlayStation is in development

If you had any concerns that the PlayStation 4 would be the last home console ever developed by Sony, you can put those concerns to rest. Speaking with the Financial Times this week, Sony CEO Kenichiro Yoshida confirmed that the company believes it is “necessary” to release another console, though he wouldn’t call it the PlayStation 5.

“At this point, what I can say is it’s necessary to have a next-generation hardware,” said Yoshida.

While Microsoft has been surprisingly forthright about its plans for the next generation, announcing at E3 2018 that a new Xbox console is in development, Sony has yet to tip its hand. That’s not as surprising, as the PS4 has dominated this console generation, repeatedly topping the Xbox One in US and worldwide sales, month after month. As long as the PS4 continues to sell, it wouldn’t make much sense for Sony to start talking about how the console will soon be antiquated. In all likelihood, we’re more than halfway to a new generation, but Sony is in no rush.

Industry sources with knowledge of Sony’s plans tell the Financial Times that the new console “might not represent a major departure from the PS4, and that the fundamental architecture would be similar.” This appears to match up with other reports which claim the next PlayStation console will be backwards compatible with PS4 games.

We still don’t know when exactly Sony plans to announce the PS5 (or whatever it ends up being called), but Sony’s John Kodera said earlier this year that the company “will use the next three years to prepare the next step, to crouch down so that we can jump higher in the future,” indicating a 2021 launch at the earliest.